The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-06-24
SAVE YOUR STEPS.
a Few Suggestions for the Benefit OF Hard
Working Housekeepers.

49, - OOaA - - -
Few Suggestions for the Benefit OF Hard
Working House<eepers.
Few people who are not working
housekeepers have any idea of the num-
Der Of steps taken by the latter during
the day. Now and then we read in
some of the papers about the capacity
for walking of the English women and
the incapacity of the American women
in this respect, usually ending with the
advice to the latter to exercise more if
they wish for the robust health of their
English sisters. Paragraphs of this
| kind have reference to very small
class of American women, and it must
be that the writer's of such are confined
in their knowledge to this one class,
and have no idea of the average Amer
lean woman. Their acquaintance with
4 this subject was based on their familiar
/ ity with the women who have but to
oversee their household affairs, having
/ those under them ready to carry out
1 their plan. The advice in these para
/ graphs might apply to women of this
kind, but it will not apply generally
1 to American women The majority
! of American women are housekeep-
ers, and working housekeepers ut that,
having no hired help of any kind to
( aid them. Many of them, more par
ticularly those with large families, are
on their feet from the first streak of
daylight until late into the night, from
one end of the year to the other. 1t is
surprising how they live through it.
Now. isn't it ridiculously absurd
to say that these people
require more exercise to give
them good health? l wonder what
the authors of the advice referred to
would say if, when with weary brain
they laid down their pen, after long
siege of writing, with the idea that they
! would rest, some one suggested that
they would write two or three columns
more just for exercise. They would be
very apt to intimate to the adviser that
he did not understand their case.
Neither do these writer's understand
the average American woman. If run
ming up and down stairs, in and out of
rooms. for the length of day and part
of the night is not exercise, what is it?
No, indeed, the average American
woman does not languish for the lack
of exercise, but for the want of rest.
After long day of housework she does
not care, nor has she strength to walk
Olong distance like her English
sisters. Though she does not do much
walking outside she makes up for it all
by the amount of walking she accom-
plishes in the house during the day. She
has too much exercise and ought to
have great deal more rest. She takes
in doing her homework a good many
unnecessary steps that could easily be
dispensed with, and it would be to her
advantage to save as many of these as
she can. The only way to do this is to
have the articles most in use eonven-
iently near. Don't have the pots and
kettles and other cooking utensils, gen
orally used daily, in a close closet in
another room or at the farther corner
of the kitchen, away from the stove,
where, when they are wanted for use,
you have just so many steps to take be-
fore you get them, and just so many
or more to take when you are putin
them back Have a small closet near
the stove or sink, where all these arti-
cles can be kept. You have a cool spot
in your pantry where there is broad
shelf that you use for pastry, and if
there are not some small shelves above
it there ought to be. On these shelves
should be the spice box, cooking
spoons, egg heaters, pie plates, and, in
fact, every thing that is needed for this
kind of cooking. If there is corner
near the stove, shelf on hinges like
the leaf of kitchen table, to be lifted
J up when wanted for use and let down
when not in use, will be found to be
very convenient at any time, but es-
! pecially so when the housekeeper is in
a hurry with her cooking.
These few suggestions may appear OF
very little Importance, but if they are
carried out they will be found to dis
pense with a good many unnecessary
} steps. Women who do their own house
: work should try and save as many steps
as possible, and to do this they will
have to make their heads do more work
{ and their feet less, or, in the words OF
! an old saying: Teach the head to save
the heels. boston B1tdqct.